Pacediver
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Info?
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I have never used actual Duck Feet fins, but I did use a pair of Aqualung duck feet clones once. They were light blue and seemed to be a little fatter through the middle of the fin. I can’t remember the name of them. I had to use them with freediving fin socks. All I can say is they were, “different”…I never understood the relationship between Voit and Swimmaster. It could have been as simple as Swimmaster contracting to Voit to manufacture their rubber parts, something like the cross pollicization between US Divers and Voit..
This is from Voit's 1964 catalog, which is the first appearance of Duck Feet in their catalog, but they were around long before that.
View attachment 735469
They do have Swimmaster on the fin:
Duck Feet were the Jet Fins of the day when I started diving in 1962, at least is my sphere of visibility.
Thanks for the informationMark IX fins seem to have made their début in the 1971 Voit Swimaster catalogue. Their last appearance may have been the 1977 version; I have no access to the 1978 catalogue and I can't see the fins in the 1979 catalogue. See for yourself in the VDH manual and catalog collection.
As for the beginning of the association between Voit and AMF (American Machine and Foundry), the 1958 catalogue (VR214L) in the VDH collection has "AMF" next to "Voit" in the heading, while the 1959 version makes no reference to AMF. The 1960 catalogue has the "AMF" logo. More digging may be required in company history sites to establish exact dating of the takeover. According to Jonathan Walford's blog, "In 1957, the company (Voit) was sold to AMF and in 1963 operations were moved to Santa Ana, California", but there is no independent source for this information. A 1987 LA Times article about Voit mentions "the company’s move from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, its 1957 sale to AMF Inc. of White Plains, N.Y." So 1957 seems to be the odds-on favourite at present.